The growth of the renewable energy sector could provide forward-thinking farmers with ample opportunities.
Around the world, the renewable energy sector is growing in importance. As it develops, like all fledgling sectors, a number of growing pains invariably crop up along the way.
Government policies are becoming more refined and sophisticated to encourage the relevant sectors to meet targets or resolve national or European issues. For example, the European target for the UK to achieve 20% of energy from renewables by 2020 is much higher than the 2% currently achieved. And it is increasingly likely that the majority of this will be for electricity production; the UK will have to generate in excess of a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, up from the present 5%.
In order to cope with target shortfalls, the EU plans to issue member states with credits so that they can trade in renewable energy. Thus, if the UK does not achieve its target but another country does, it can purchase credits from them. In fact, given this option, the UK will more than likely aim to achieve about 15% renewables, and purchase the balance in credits. This sounds like a cop-out, but if other countries are more suited to generate energy cheaply or easily from renewables, it makes sense that they specialise in it.
That said, the UK is blessed with natural resources that could make it a leader in renewables. It has simply lagged behind in exploiting them. Opportunities for UK farmers certainly exist and are likely to continue growing. Those with an ability to glance into the future could reap dividends by investigating the opportunities now.
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New Policies For Age-Old Concept Even though renewable energy has only recently picked up with a vengeance, it has been used on a local basis for many years. Wind has long been harnessed to power mills and wells, while anaerobic digestion tanks have been used to capture methane and sanitise sewage for several generations. Indeed, there is evidence of anaerobic digestion plants used to heat bath water in 10th century BC Assyria. Biofuel technology was even used to fuel military vehicles during the Second World War. |
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